The Healer and the Warrior
by Qzil
Summary: The right healer can soften even the hardest of warriors. SongHahn.


An unusual pairing, I know. I felt like I didn't keep Hahn in character very well, but I do think that I got song. Un-beta'd, so the grammar is probably not the best.

I bit disjointed. Enjoy.

--

Shortly after the defeat of the Fire Nation, Hahn leaves his home, dishonored and lost. His failure to kill Zhao and save the Moon Spirit makes him guilty for Yue's death. He runs from the guilt and shame, runs right into the Earth Kingdom. He can hide there.

Yet, when the moon shines down on him, everything comes rushing back, and he can't help but think that he killed Yue.

--

Song's village is burned to the ground, and her legs set on fire. The glow from the flames make her attackers look like demons as they tear apart her life. Her mother smothers the fire on her legs and grabs her, running into the night. A blast of fire comes so close to them Song can count the different shades of orange.

Her mother runs and runs until she sees a road, and a kind man with a cart full of hay tells them to get on.

And, years later, Song would wake up in the middle of the night, her nightmares full of glowing demons.

--

Hahn travels through the Earth Kingdom, never able to settle in one place for long. Their customs are strange to him, and their women so unlike the ones back home. He sometimes takes odd jobs, but mostly lives off the land as he was taught. For Hahn, being alone is something he's gotten used to.

When he sees the moon now, it doesn't hurt as much.

--

Ever since her mother fixed the burns on her legs, Song's wanted to be a herbalist just like her. She studies hard, and by the time she is a teenager she is a master at it. The village she and her mom move to love the small family, and help put up a house for them. Song loves the village, and feels safe there.

The nightmares finally stop, and she all but forgets about the Fire Nation.

--

Hahn will never forget about the Fire Nation.

As he travels the Earth Kingdom, he sees village after village that has been destroyed by them. He sees towns where amber-eyed demons walk on Earth Kingdom soil like they belong there. He sees towns where the Earth Kingdom soldiers are as corrupt as the Fire Nation ones.

And he misses his home even more.

--

Song meets an amber-eyed boy traveling the Earth Kingdom with his Uncle. They chat, and she finds out the boy is going to Ba Sing Se. She's heard good (and bad) things about the city, and she wishes him luck. They come to dinner, and for the first time in a long time Song things about the Fire Nation and her old village. She talks to the boy and shows him her scars, something she's never done for anyone else.

Later in the night, when he rides off with her ostrich-horse, she sees his amber eyes mixed with another pair of amber eyes. She remembers a sickening orange glow, screams of pain, and the smell of burning wood and flesh. The boy is Fire Nation, and he is just as bad as the rest of them.

--

Hahn finds himself in a forest, a brilliant white flower in the way of a perfect camping spot. He grumbles, plucking it out of the ground and throwing it away.

It takes half an hour for his hands to be covered in a rash.

--

Song looks at her new patient, the second one in two days to come in from touching the white jade. She smiles as he grumbles, and takes his hand in her own to spread the ointment on it.

"You know, you're the second person to get this rash in two days," she says, still smiling. "There seems to be a lot of people headed this way. Are you going to Ba Sing Se, too?"

"Just wondering," Hahn answers, looking away. Her voice reminds him of the women back home, kind and gentle. Her hands are soft, and she smells like plants.

"Not ready to settle down yet?" she asks him, putting ointment on his other hand. He shakes his head. Putting down his hands, she wipes the remaining ointment on her clothes and putting her hands on her hips. "Don't move your hands for the next hour, or you'll wipe the ointment off."

"What am I supposed to do for the next hour?" Hahn asks, looking around the empty hospital. Song shrugs.

"You can talk to me," she suggests, pulling up a chair and sitting down. Hahn opens his mouth, a comment about minding your own business on his lips. But her face is so soft and innocent (something he doesn't see often in the Earth Kingdom), and it reminds him of the women back home.

So he talk to her, makes her laugh, and gets invited to dinner.

--

At dinner Hahn learns where Song gets her caring nature from. When Hahn looks at Song's mother, he is reminded of his own. She is everything he was taught that a woman should be from birth, and she is a little bit more.

He likes both of them, they are kind and respectful, and they don't ask Hahn too many questions about his life. After they eat, Song's mother sends them outside to enjoy the air.

"I've never seen someone put beads in their hair like that," Song says, looking at his face as they sit on the porch. "Is that how men do their hair where you come from?"

"It's a thing that the warriors do in the Water Tribe," Hahn explains, fingering the braid.

"You've traveled very far," Song remarks, turning her head to stare at the sky. "It must be very cold there. Hahn shrugs.

"You get used to it."

--

Hahn is invited to stay the night, and he tries to refused. "It wouldn't be proper," he says. Song's mother only smiles.

"Please? I would feel much safer knowing a trained warrior is in the house," she tells him, voice even and gentle. Hahn feels his chest puff out with pride and accepts. He hasn't been called a warrior since he left the Water Tribe.

--

One day turns into a week, and a week turns into a few months. Every morning Hahn rises before the sun and chops some wood. But the time he's done Song or her mother has made breakfast. The three eat before going their separate ways for the day: Hahn to hunt or fix things, and Song and her mother to the hospital. Around midday Song's mother arrives home to start dinner and make a quick lunch. Hahn brings Song's to her at the hospital, and the two usually eat together.

It has been like that for months, and Hahn isn't all that eager to change it.

--

Hahn makes friends in the village, and one or two nights a week he heads to the local tavern with money earned from odd jobs. It is nice to be alone for an hour or so, and being able to talk about hunting weapons with men is nice.

Some of the men ask if he is Song's husband. The first time it happened, he spit out his drink in surprise. The men laugh when he freak out, slapping him on the back and telling him they're only teasing.

--

Song likes Hahn, and she admits that it is nice to have a man around the house. He fixes things, and he tells her stories about the Water Tribe. In his spare time, she notices that he makes things out of wood or stones. She's even seen him work with bones before. That doesn't freak her out like it should, and when he gives her a small bracelet she smiles and hugs him.

--

Song and Hahn have an easy friendship. Both are polite, and she is a healer while he is a warrior. Hahn only realizes how she feel when her friends drag her to the tavern and she drinks a bit too much. Hahn offers to carry her home, and she babbles most of the way about thinks like plants and the stars. She smiles and looks at him.

"You're so pretty, you know," she says, turning her head to look at the sky. "You're so nice to me, and you're good at fixing things! The girls at the hospital always tease me because I love you so much."

Hahn nearly drops her, recovering just before he does. Song giggles and tightens her grip on his shoulders. She doesn't talk again, and she falls asleep just as they reach the house.

--

After that night, they fall into an easy sort of courtship. His months at Song's house have softened his memories of Yue, and he no longer feels overwhelming guilt. The two laugh together, hold hands, and exchange small gifts. Song's mother pretends to be oblivious to what is going on when people in town ask her, and gives the two her blessing. Hahn slowly takes to the Earth Kingdom way of dress, replacing all his blue with green. The only thing he refuses to do is cut his hair, and Song likes that.

--

The fist time they say 'I love you' to each other is the first time Hahn makes dinner for her. It is a Water Tribe dish, and Song loves it. When they've finished eating, Hahn places a kiss on her lips and murmurs that he loves her. She smiles and says it back, a blush on her face and her heart pounding.

--

News the Fire Nation has taken Ba Sing Se arrives a few months later, along with news that the Avatar is dead. The two sit outside on her porch, Song's head on his shoulder.

"This is bad," Song says turning her head slightly to look up at Hahn.

"I know," he kisses the top of her forehead, staring up at the moon. He thinks of Yue, and how he lost her to the Fire Nation. "Song, close your eyes." Song obeys, and Hahn reaches into his pocket, pulling out a green choker with a blue stone on it, carved into the shape of the white jade plant. He held it in front of them, smiling. "Okay, open them."

Song does, and her eyebrows wrinkle in confusion. "Hahn, it's beautiful. But what is it?"

"Song, we should get married," he says, "In the Water Tribes, this is how a man proposes." Song smiles and takes the necklace.

"Why is there a poisonous flower on it?" she asks, sitting up to tie it around her neck. Hahn laughs.

"Because we wouldn't have met if I hadn't poisoned myself," he tells her, and she smiles.

--

Their wedding is small and quick, and Hahn begins to build them a house. The Fire Nation has not yet arrived at their village, and life seems to go on as normal. Song thinks that even if the Fire Nation comes to the village, she could live a life with her husband and mother.

--

Time passes slowly in the village, and the Fire Nation never comes. News the Avatar is alive and well comes to the village, and the residents cheer. When the Avatar defeats Ozai and Azula there is a party in the streets.

And, when her husband carries her home late that night, Song smiles against his back and looks up at the stars.


End file.
